Man With Coronavirus Speaks From Folsom Hospital
FOLSOM (CBS13) — A man with coronavirus is being treated at Mercy Hospital of Folsom after being evacuated from the Diamond Princess Cruise in Japan.
Mark Jorgenson tested positive for novel coronavirus. Since arriving back in the United States, he's been quarantined at Travis Air Force Base, spent time at a hospital in Fairfield, and arrived at Mercy Hospital in Folsom on Thursday night. Mark says he's in good spirits and he's just ready for this all to be over.
"Hearing my wife had it, that was more startling than hearing I had it. I honestly wasn't surprised when they told me I was positive. I don't know why, I just kind of seemed... okay," Mark said. "But that was kind of scary. That was totally off the boot. She's the healthiest person I know. That really hit me like a ton of bricks."
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Just two weeks into the Diamond Princess Cruise Mark's wife tested positive for novel coronavirus. It was the day before they were supposed to get off the ship.
"The cruise started on the 20th, so we spent a few days in Tokyo, went on the cruise, cruise went great," he said. "There had been a passenger that had disembarked in Hong Kong that had tested positive since he got off."
Quickly, everything changed.
"The Japanese government wanted to have everyone screened before they let everyone off," Mark said. "Over the course of that screening, they found 10 more cases and put the ship under quarantine for 14 days."
Eight days into the quarantine, he found out his wife had the virus. "They took her to a Japanese hospital immediately," he said.
Just after she was diagnosed, he got the same result: positive.
"Then the state department got all the Americans off the ship brought us to Travis Air Force Base and they chartered cargo planes and got to Travis got settled in there," Mark said.
One week later he tested positive again.
"I was taken immediately away to a hospital in Fairfield and I was there for a while, and two days later they said they were transferring me to Folsom."
Mark says officials are not telling him why he keeps getting bounced around. He's frustrated because he believes he will be moved again.